CHAPTER XIII A SAND STORM

  The return to the car was not without difficulties. At the spot where thenatural steps were not close together, Jerry, finding the merest toe-holdin the cliff and only the scraggliest growth to which he could cling,did, however, manage to reach the step above. He then dropped one end ofthe rope down and Dick ascended nimbly. Then, Jerry made a swing of thelariat. Mary, flushed and laughing up at him, sat in it and was slowlylifted to the ledge above. This, being narrow, could hold no more thanthree. So Mary climbed still higher, then turned and watched, while Dorawas lifted in the swing. The girls were told to return to the car whilethe boys tied the box on the end of the rope and drew it up over thesheer place.

  From the road, Mary looked out far across the desert. "How queer the airlooks, doesn't it?" she said, pointing to what seemed to be a huge yellowcloud of sand which was moving rapidly across the floor of the desert andshutting out the Little Grand Canyon from their view.

  Jerry, with the small trunk on one shoulder joined them; Dick, whirlingthe lariat playfully, was not far behind.

  Mary again pointed. "What is that far below there, Jerry? Is it a windstorm?"

  "I reckon that's what it is," Jerry said. "Carrying enough sand with itto change things up a little. But more'n like, it will blow itself awaybefore we get down to the valley road." He seemed little concerned aboutit and the girls, in their curiosity about the small trunk, also forgotit. Where they stood, in a flood of late warm afternoon sun, there wasnot a breath of air stirring.

  "What a queer little trunk," Mary said, touching the battered top of itwith an investigating finger. "What is it made of, Jerry?"

  "You've got me guessing," the cowboy replied. "Some kind of a thickanimal skin, I reckon, stretched over a frame. It tightened as it dried.Shouldn't you say so, Dick?"

  The boy addressed was helping to lash the small box on the running boardof the car. "It looks like a home-made affair to me," he said. "Probablythey brought it over from Scandinavia."

  Dora was peering around it. "There isn't a lock," she observed. "Isuppose whatever it was tied with rotted away long ago." Then, as anotherthought came, "Oh, Jerry, if we had waited, maybe even a week, the stagecoach might have crumbled, don't you think? It couldn't have stayedtogether much longer."

  "Righto!" the cowboy continued. Then, with a quick glance at Dick, hesaid, "Now that it's over, I'm thankful it has gone,--the stage coach, Imean. Dick and I might have been tempted to come back and look for moreclues, and believe me, we came within _one_ of going to the bottom, butJumping Steers! we didn't, and it sure was some exciting adventure,wasn't it, old man?"

  Before Dick could reply, Mary said emphatically, "I wouldn't have _let_you come back again, Jerry. You call me 'Little Sister,' and brothers_always_ have to _obey_, don't they, Dora?"

  But her friend laughingly denied, "Not _my_ small brother, believe me,NO. When I want him to do a thing, I ask the opposite."

  Jerry had seemed to be too intent on tying knots securely to have heard,but when he turned, his gray eyes smiled at the smaller girl, adoringher. "_This_ Big Brother is the exception which proves the rule," hequoted. "Command, Little Sister, and I will obey."

  "Bravo!" Dora teased. Then, to the other girl, "Please command that westart for home. I'm wild to get there so that we may look through thetrunk."

  Jerry removed the rocks that held the wheels. Dick was glancing about thepart of the road where the small car stood. "Do you plan turning here,Jerry?" he asked. "I was wondering, because I heard you say it would bemiles out of our way, if we kept going straight on over the mountain."

  Before answering, Jerry stood, looking, not at the road, but down at thevalley sand storm which had not decreased in density. In fact it hadwidened and was hiding the lower part of the mountain on which theystood.

  "How much gas have we, Dick?" Jerry asked, making no comment on the sandstorm.

  "About four gallons. And another five in the storage can."

  "Good!" Again Jerry's gray eyes looked thoughtfully about. They seemed tobe measuring the width of the road between the peak at their right andthe edge of the descent at the left. Dick stepped back and throughnarrowed lids, he also estimated the distance.

  "A leetle more than twice the width of the car," he guessed. "Say, oldman," Dick stepped eagerly toward the cowboy, "let _me_ turn it, willyou? Back East, one of the crazy things we did at school was to havecontests on car turning. I was pretty durn good at it then. Could turnaround on a dime, so to speak." Still Jerry hesitated. "But you don'tknow _this_ car--" he began, when Dick interrupted swaggeringly, to tryto make the girls think the feat would be less serious than it reallywould be. "Why, my dear _vaquero_, a wild car is as docile with me as awild broncho would be with you--knows the master's touch and all that."

  Then, as Jerry still hesitated, Dick leaped up under the wheel and calledto the girls: "Stand back, if you please, and make room for the worldfamous--" the engine was starting, the car slowly turning. Dick did notfinish his joking speech. He directed all his thought and skill to theturning of the car. There was a tense silence broken by Dora.

  "Why, there was lots of room after all!" she cried admiringly.

  "Gee whizzle!" Jerry had expected Dick to give up. "I reckon you didn'trate yourself any too high when you were boasting about your skill."

  He helped Mary up to her seat, then took the place Dick had relinquishedto climb in back with Dora. Slowly the small car started down the roadwhich they had ascended hours before.

  "What thrilling adventures and narrow escapes we have had today!" Doraexclaimed, loud enough for Jerry to hear.

  "I reckon they're not all over yet," the cowboy replied,--then wished hehad not spoken.

  "What do you suppose Jerry means?" Dora asked in a low voice of Dick.

  The boy's first reply was a shrug of his shoulders. "Nothing, really; atleast I don't think he does." Then, as they rounded an outflung curve inthe road and he saw the dull yellow flying cloud far below them, Dickadded, as though suddenly understanding, "Oho, I savvy. Jerry is thinkingof the sand storm."

  "But, of course, it _can't_ climb the mountain and equally, of course,Jerry won't run right out into it," Dora said. Dick agreed, then asked:

  "But _what_ if the sand storm lasted for hours and we had to stay in themountain all night, wouldn't that be another adventure, and if we shouldhear pumas prowling around the car wishing to devour us, wouldn't that bea narrow escape?"

  Dora laughed. "Do you know, Dick, when I first met you, I thought youwere as solemn as an owl. I didn't dream that you were, I mean, _are_ ahumorist."

  "Thanks for not saying clown." Dick seemed so ridiculously grateful thatDora laughed again.

  "You remind me of Harold Lloyd," she said, "and I hope you think that's acompliment. He looks through his shell-rimmed glasses just as solemnly asyou do when he's saying the funniest things."

  Instead of replying, Dick peered curiously ahead. "I reckon the 'anotheradventure or narrow escape' is about to happen," he said in a low voiceclose to Dora's ear. "Leastwise our vehicle is slowing to a stop."

  Jerry, making sure that the front wheels were safely wedged against themountain, turned and inquired, "Dick, can you and Dora hear a roaringnoise?"

  "Now that the car has stopped rattling, I can," Dick replied.

  "It's the sand storm, isn't it?" Dora leaned forward to ask.

  "Yes." Jerry glanced back, troubled. "There are two valley roads forkingoff just below here. One goes over toward the Chiricahua Mountains whereour ranch is, the other toward Gleeson where we have to go to take thegirls. Now what I want to say is this. Our road is clear, but the Gleesonroad is in the path of the sand storm. Of course, if the wind shouldchange, it might catch us, but I reckon our best chance is to race acrossthe open valley to _Bar N_ ranch. You girls would have to stay all night,but Mother'd like that powerful well. We could telephone to Gleeson soyour dad wouldn't worry."

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p; Mary, who had been listening with anxious eyes, now put in, "But, Jerry,wouldn't that sand storm cut down the wires? I'd hate to have Dad anxiousif there was any possible way of getting home--"

  "I have it," Dick announced. "If, after we reach the ranch, we find wecan't communicate with your home, Jerry and I will ride over there onhorseback. The sand storm will surely be blown away by then." Hisquestioning glance turned toward Jerry.

  "Sure thing," the cowboy replied. "Now, girls, hold tight! We're going todrop down to the cross valley road. It's smooth and hard and we're goingto beat the world's record."